The Watering Hole

A guy in Alabama contacted me specifically looking for a high end Premium Series Tokai.
No online dealer in Japan had this model in stock, I had two in stock, he asked me if I could do the deal for $2000 including shipping, I said yes....shipping to the USA cost me $230 using EMS, 4 day delivery.

Amazing guitar, Premium Series LS200 AAAAA Maple Top, colour is Violin Finish.
One piece solid mahogany body.
5A Maple Flame Top.
Lightweight aluminium tailpiece.
CTS pots.
Orange drop capacitors.
Switchcraft switches and input jack.
Deep long tenon neck joint (Vintage correct).
Tokai MK11 Vintage PAF pickups.
Tokai Vintage hard case.
NITRO finish.

Wow!  Very nice guitar.  I'd love to play that one.  

That's a nice looking axe.  Love the cap wiring.  I'd give it a whirl.

yeah, the attention to detail is noteworthy there.  I'd bet a nice crisp $100 bill that this smokes a comparably priced Gibson!

To get a Gibson like that, you'd have to throw down some serious cash!

Yes, indeed.  I played a BUNCH of Les Pauls in the last 10 years, because I always loved the tone of a really good one.  Other than the one a friend of mine has that was some reissue model ($4500 or so) I haven't played ONE of them that compares to my PRS or just about any PRS I've played.  The worst part, everything you hear about the quality/consistency etc. is true.  Very few of them felt the same.   I could pick up 5 different PRS Custom guitars and blindfolded you couldn't tell the difference.  With the Les Pauls, there was always enough difference in feel that you could tell them apart and usually only a small percentage of them really had what I would call "great" feel.  I'm not just talking setup differences either.  I can tell immediately when one guitar has slightly heavier strings or slightly higher action.  

I've talked a lot to Lance about these guitars. And after his comments I went and read a lot about them.  They are very consistent, and consistently GREAT guitars.  If I had cash and wanted to buy a Les Paul, this is what I'd buy.  

That is one beautiful guitar.  8-)

When I sent off my tele to have some work done on it, the guy that did the work told me I would have to wait about three weeks for the job. The local music shop just got a shipment of Gibson Guitars. They send them all to him to "adjust" before they sell them.

A buddy of mine had to send his LP Studio to Gibson for repair because it had a raised spot in the neck around the 11th fret causing a buzz.  He ended up getting a whole new guitar.  That's not good when they just send you a new one because it can't be repaired.  Pretty crappy for a 2007 LP.

As a  huge asss capitalist  ;)  - I see fender and gibson as premier brands.

Tokai would do better if they didn't advertise on the headstock.
Leave it blank - honestly.

If you are making Coke and Pepsi better than them.
don't fight them on branding.

But where it hurts - they don't live up to their hype.

Dearthian: — Mar 30, 2011A buddy of mine had to send his LP Studio to Gibson for repair because it had a raised spot in the neck around the 11th fret causing a buzz.  He ended up getting a whole new guitar.  That's not good when they just send you a new one because it can't be repaired.  Pretty crappy for a 2007 LP.

Yeah, not good!  Heck, now your friend has to figure out what's wrong with the replacement!  At least he knew what was wrong on the first one...  ;) :D

The music store down the road from me have become the one & only official Gibson dealer in SAfrica...there is no SAfrican distributor, just the one official dealer and they are only allowed to sell the Gibsons from their store, they can't supply any other store...these are Gibson rules.
In their contract it states that the store is not allowed to stock and sell Tokais.
My buddy who is the sales manager of the store gigs with a Tokai LS160 and Tokai ES135. :)

I watched my guitar tech try and setup a Custom Shop Gibson 335, a 50th Anniversary edition.
He spent 3 hours trying to level the frets (supposedly plekked), the nut needed serious work, the fretboard hadn't been sanded properly at the factory and needed some sanding and polishing...when all that was done it became a playable guitar.

The Tokais come from the factory perfectly setup, every guitar is flawless out the box...never seen anything like it besides USA PRS.
When Peter bought his first Tokai from me, an LS85 (92) Gold Top...he came past my apartment on his way to his gig, picked up the guitar still in it's box, went to his gig, tuned it and played the gig.
His second Tokai, and LS98F, same thing, he's been playing both guitars for 15 months with the factory setup...hasn't picked up his Gibson's since the got the Tokais.

Peters demos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG9OEkgGEJM&aia=true
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ws1llgOEWE

At Gibson, Quality is Job 1(hundred).  ;)

It is a great looking guitar for sure!

Nice guitar

wow, missed the demos before.  (probably read that post on my phone).  cool vids.  Great job Peter!    The guitars sound great too!

Hey Lance, how much is R99.99 in U.S. Dollars?  (The price of Peter's CD.)  :)

That's a beautiful guitar.  

My '01 Studio that looks a lot like the one Lance had (has?) is a nice player, but I had to work on it a bit.  The neck changes more between winter and summer than any of my other guitars too.  You can tell it was made with the bottom line in mind...